Lace & Pearls Round Robbin Too

I have been busy these past three months working on some Round Robin blocks for ladies at Crazy Quilt International (CQI).  One lady I have know for years now and think of her as a very special friend.

Cathy K. is very special and such a joy to be around. We met in Omaha, NE some ten years ago, at the Crazy Quilt Society Retreat. It has been fun to be her friend since that first day.

There are five of us in this Round Robbin (RR) and we each made our own blocks. So, each individual will work on one block for each person in the RR. Then at the end, we will finish a block for ourselves, to complete the work. What fun this has been.

We have two months to go, so I thought I might share the blocks I've done with those of you who are not members of the Yahoo Groups CQI.

The first was Connie's block, which I have posted earlier. It was the Fan block made with the vintage handkerchief.

The Second block was Andrea's. Andrea lives in India and used some lovely paisley fabric. I could not help myself, I love paisley and I just had to make one for her block. It just called to me. LOL!
I also tatted the orange lace for the block.

 

 

 

I did the feather stitch beaded line across the bottom seam and used orange beads (3) at each point on the feather stitching. I used a flower chenille trim below the tatted lace and placed pearl and gold beads in the center of the flower.

 

The pearl strip across the upper seam just seemed a little plain, so I trimmed it with Gold Delica Beads.  While the center was bordered on the left side with Blanket Stitch Fans. The fans have beading along their tops made in clusters of 3 white beads, to look like lace.

 

I worked the paisley before I added anything else. It was the image that came to me based on the fabric that borders the center fabric. I drew the paisley, stitched the lace down, worked the green sequins with small white seed beads and finished off with the orange Delica seed beads. I knew the oval MOP (mother of pearl) beads and the pearl button would be the center point of the paisley.

 

Although I'm not real happy with the overall look of the block, I'm pleased with what I have done. This block was finished in September.

 

I finished Cathy K's block two days ago and I have to admit, I am really happy with the way it turned out. Cathy placed a lovely metallic lace on each block. I chose the block, because I thought that I would use the lace as a headdress for an embroidered lady's face.

 

However, as I spent time with the block and lace, it suddenly came to me. Oh my! It just has to be a Peacock!   So, I drew the peacock on a sheet of paper, reduced it on my printer until it fit with the lace. Traced it onto a separate piece of fabric (because I didn't want to damage the block) and started with the satin stitch on the face and body of the peacock.

 

 

 

The peacock's comb is done in Fly Stitch. The crown of the head is in pink bullion stitches, to give it dimension. I appliqued the peacock body to the block once the lace was placed and then added bullion stitches to the back and rear of peacock in the colors of the lace tail, to try to blend the peacock in with the lace. The half circle where the peacock body is, was a flower spray. I cut that from the lace before I started working, thinking I would use it elsewhere on the block.

 

When I finished with the peacock body, I realized I had open space and needed to find a want to make it look natural.  I took that floral spray I had removed from the lace, cut it in half and put it on either side of the peacock body. This make the whole thing come together.

 

Stem Stitch and pink & white seed beads make up the vine. Stem stitch and flat back buttons where used for the three flowers.  While gold spacer beads and pearl bead and seed beads were used in the design at the top. Laces and three metallic lace butterflies complete the look.

 

Here is a close up of the peacock for those of you who have waited. LOL! Enjoy!